


Seven

by redlittleowl



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 00:04:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11324511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redlittleowl/pseuds/redlittleowl
Summary: The death of the universe in seven parts. A poem.





	Seven

**VII**

There is no rhyme, no reason.  
Steel glints under the dying light.  
Clashing, parrying again and again,  
An endless battle under an ever-fading sun.

Clashes and skirmishes and ambushes,  
One after another, no time to waste.  
Sword against sword, armor to armor,  
Attack and advance, defend and retreat.

Again. Again. Again. Again.  
Swords ring out against each other.  
A melody of life and death,  
No other sounds. Only battle.

Warriors, knights, mercenaries,  
Kings and peasants alike.  
Caught up in the brawl for countless days  
Fighting, on and on and on and on.

A hiccup, then, on the seventh day.  
A blink. Men freeze, weapons still raised,  
Waiting, breathless, wondering in awe.  
A tremble in the air, and a sudden flash. 

**VI**

It rains, and armies fight on under the downpour,  
Armor rusting and decaying under the water.  
Those who outlive their armor fall to the weather,  
Poison rain taking lives as easily as blades.

Yet these men fight on, ankle-deep in red.  
Their armor disappearing and their weapons failing,  
But they ignore such hindrances as if nothing  
And fight on like beasts with their bare hands.

There are fewer men this time,  
Fewer blades to meet each other.  
Knights are hard to find,  
And mercenaries demand higher pay.

The rule of kings has disappeared  
And peasants have taken up the middle class.  
Yet still, battle is integral to who they are,  
Leading them on to ‘glory’ and ‘fame’.

Something else, then, on the sixth day.  
A pause. Men hesitate, hands clenched,  
On edge, suspicious, unsure of what is happening.  
A shockwave across the battlefield, and then blankness. 

**V**

Smoke clogs the sky, and countries fight for dominance.  
Weapons of ultimate devastation batter the lands,  
Leaving behind death and decay where they fall.  
The world is burning alive.

Still, armies wage war on a global battlefield,  
Innocents left behind to choke on death  
As troops march on through desolate lands,  
Ranged weapons at the ready to cleave through enemies.

Bang. Bullets ricochet across the sky,  
The coward’s way of fighting, nothing face-to-face.  
Men kill and are killed from afar.  
They fight and die for no reason.

Democracy and world ‘cooperation’ have gotten them here.  
No more kings, no more despots to tyrannize the people.  
World leaders have tried to find world peace,  
And yet the masses stopped believing in that ideal very long ago.

An event, anomalous, on the fifth day.  
A break. Men and women stop,  
Their weapons upheld in anticipation.  
A gust of wind wipes the world clean, and quickly disappears.

**IV**

Blue skies untroubled by smoke, and greenest grass.  
Mankind’s resourcefulness overturning once-devastated lands  
Into lush vegetation and prosperous mines.  
Mother Nature has come to reclaim her own.

Yet still there are outbreaks, here and there  
Small at first, mere skirmishes, but they grow and grow.  
Soon evolving into all-out attacks against each other,  
Men fighting those they once called brothers.

Spears, bows, daggers and knives  
Primitive weapons after the destruction of the world.  
Anything else is denied, feared, locked up,  
The stuff of nightmares that threatens the world.

No more cooperation for land or for resources.  
Humanity wants more. More. More. More.  
Never stopping, hardly thinking, grasping at straws,  
Clenching fingers in an attempt to claim the world.

A sort of rush, suddenly, on the fourth day.  
Men bare their teeth and glare,  
Their women and children hiding behind them.  
Warmth encases the world, and then goes cold. 

**III**

Humanity is scattered, living quiet, skittish half-lives,  
Afraid of the dark and what now comes with it.  
The earth itself is denying them their only home,  
Giving birth to deadly hunters and insidious trackers.

Yet humanity remembers their days of glory still,  
And cling to some idea that the earth is still theirs.  
Men grow restless, trapped behind stone walls,  
And children dream of endless grasses and indigo night skies.

Men raise their weapons up against the hunters of the night,  
Sticks and stones and breaking bones,  
Blood across the dusty ground,  
And bodies across the dying plains.

But mankind has underestimated their opponents  
Beasts have evolved into supreme hunters  
Teeth longer than arms, and claws sharper than daggers  
Deny mankind the world they are trying to take back.

Limitless energy, instantly, on the third day.  
Men and beasts turn to the sky, eyes wide,  
And all movements cease.  
Liquid cold spreads across the world, and then dries.

**II**

A few remnants of humanity remain,  
But they may as well be isolated.  
For all they know, they are completely alone,  
Unable to communicate across long distances.

Groups of people wander aimlessly across vast continents,  
Searching desperately for any other survivors.  
It is a hit-and-miss game.  
They keep missing.

Humanity is alone in the world,  
And so they live lives of quiet, desperate half-ease.  
Not knowing what to do,  
Nor knowing where to start.

Eventually people start to die.  
They give up, give in, lose hope.  
The will to live flickers, dies, turns to ash  
In the wake of such crushing loneliness.

A surge of destruction, unannounced, on the second day.  
The last few humans look up to the sky,  
Their arms wide.  
Dust sweeps across the world, and settles on the ground. 

**I**

There is no such thing as mankind anymore.  
The sun explodes, overtaking the galaxy  
And everything else in its path.  
The world burns.

There is nothing left to mourn,  
And no one to mourn it.  
It is the last day,  
After all.

**Author's Note:**

> ~edgy~
> 
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
